There could have been red cards, instead there were scarlet faces. José Mourinho and Paul Lambert threatened to overheat as tempers flared and controversy swirled around Chelsea's match-winner, Branislav Ivanovic.

The Serbian defender tilted an intriguing contest towards the blue corner with a solid header in the 73rd minute. The fact that he courted dismissal on either side of the goal as he challenged Christian Benteke – first with an arm in the face and then with a high kick – left Villa cursing.

Lambert was unequivocal in his view that the referee had cost his team not once, but twice, as Chelsea also benefited from a benevolent nod from the official in stoppage time, after John Terry's raised arm met Fabian Delph's cross. "It's easy to sit here with sour grapes. We've been done by two big decisions," he said. " They are game-changers."

Naturally Mourinho disagreed, welcoming the referee's interpretation of events wholly. He even went so far as to come over almost nostalgic at the sight of Lambert's explosive touchline theatrics. "Paul has a certain type of personality – he reminds me of myself 10 years ago when I was complaining every decision, when I wanted to coach my team and at the same time have a whistle at my lips. He's a young manager, very intelligent, he will change."

Some sympathy for Lambert was understandable, as Villa played energetically and broke dangerously enough to merit more reward than the moral satisfaction to have improved enormously on their last showing here, which ended in a club record 8-0 nightmare.

The expectancy of home dominance is part of life under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge and all went according to plan early on. Chelsea eased into the lead in the seventh minute. Oscar's vision split Villa open – his superb pass took three opposition players out of the game – enabling Eden Hazard to pelt into the box. The Belgian's cross was tricky for Brad Guzan, who could only palm the ball straight into the chest of the onrushing Antonio Luna.

Once they were in front Chelsea looked in the mood to suffocate Villa with endless, mesmerising possession. It was pedestrian and soporific, as they mustered a few half-chances but nothing else of note in the first period to test Guzan seriously.

For all Mourinho's talk pre-match about his wish to see more "intensity" from his team, and a hunger to "destroy" teams, Chelsea played the first half as if they were content to pootle along in first gear.

Villa found a Mourinho-drilled Chelsea a tougher nut to crack than a shaky Arsenal, so eking a path back into the game was a tougher challenge than they had last weekend, when they also needed to recover from an early setback. But recover they did.

Undaunted, they chipped away patiently and slowly began to drag some of the initiative away from Chelsea. The equaliser came in first-half stoppage time, as their two most influential attacking figures combined again. Gabriel Agbonlahor was able to dart away down the left flank, and his pass fell to Villa's master marksman. Christian Benteke cushioned the ball with his right foot and placed it with his left. Petr Cech, seeking his 200th clean sheet for Chelsea, would have to wait.

Chelsea trod a thin line as they probed in search of some end product. On the hour Agbonlahor took aim with a wonderful chance on the break. His curling shot arced just over the crossbar. Then Andreas Weimann connected fiercely with Benteke's cross and Cech pulled off a vital save. It was a head-in-hands moment for the watching Lambert, who sensed another improbable mission days after the opening day win across London.

Mourinho acted, withdrawing Demba Ba and Juan Mata – neither of whom looked to have done much to endear himself to the new coach – and passing the baton to the trickery of André Schürrle and the hulking brawn of Romelu Lukaku, who showed his potential when he grazed the side-netting.

With 20 minutes to go fortune turned Chelsea's way. Ivanovic took a huge risk as he caught Benteke in the face with a raised arm. Lambert fumed on the touchline but the referee chose yellow instead of red.

A couple of minutes later Lampard swung in a free-kick and – inevitably – the name on the shirt of the man who thundered in to plant a bullet header past Guzan was none other than … Ivanovic.

Chelsea still needed Cech to protect the win courtesy of another fine save with his legs from Weimann's effort. It was hard luck for Villa while Chelsea amble on, not entirely convincingly but with six points to take into the match at Old Trafford.

A brighter Chelsea with more attacking force will need to be in action then.